Responding to our consultation on visiting and accompanying in care homes, hospitals and hospices

Who gave us their feedback?

We are grateful to all those who gave feedback to this consultation. All feedback was analysed by the external company PPL, who provided independent analysis of the qualitative and quantitative information. Detailed analysis of feedback is provided in the separate analysis report on our website.

This consultation response summarises the feedback we received and also gives our response to the main areas of feedback, including making changes to our guidance where appropriate.

There were a total of 553 unique respondents to the consultation.

There was a slightly larger proportion of responses by or on behalf of individuals than organisations:

• 287 by or on behalf of individuals
• 266 by or on behalf of organisations.

Of respondents who were speaking on behalf of an individual:

• 112 described themselves as a member of the public, person who uses health or social care services, or carer of somebody using health and social care services
• 125 described themselves as a health or social care employee
• 48 described themselves as a CQC employee, Expert by Experience, or other.

Respondents were also asked to identify which sector they work in, or are most closely associated with. Of the 368 respondents who answered this question:

• 228 said they worked in or were associated with adult social care residential or nursing care homes
• 49 said they worked in or were associated with community-based adult social care or homecare
• 19 said they worked in or were associated with NHS acute hospitals
• 23 said they worked in or were associated with hospice services 
• 49 said they worked in or were associated with other services or sectors.

What did people tell us?

The questions in our consultation survey asked whether our guidance provided clarity over various elements in the new fundamental standard.

We give more detail below, but in summary, we received a high level of agreement that the guidance provided clarity. Across the 5 questions we asked to gauge agreement or disagreement that our guidance clarifies what is required of the relevant health and social care providers, an average of:

• 79% said they agreed or strongly agreed
• 8% said they disagreed or strongly disagreed.

As well as having an open question at the end of our consultation survey that asked if people had any suggestions for improving our guidance, people were able to give their feedback on the various elements of the guidance through a free text function.

We give more detail in the sections below, but the main themes from the feedback across all the questions in the consultation are:

• Reflecting the high level of agreement described above, many respondents commented positively on the proposed guidance. Most often, they did so in general terms, saying how the guidance is necessary, or otherwise they express support for the principles contained in the guidance and associated fundamental standard. 
• People often related this to their own experience or the experience of people using services, carers and relatives.
• Some people described how the requirements of the guidance and fundamental standard support improved wellbeing and quality of life.
• Some respondents said that the guidance is too subjective and open to interpretation, and that providers will not always observe the requirements described.
• Others said that the legislation and guidance places additional staffing and resource pressures on providers.

Our response to people’s feedback

We welcome the many responses we received to this consultation.

We were pleased to see the high level of support for the guidance and fundamental standard, and that a strong majority of respondents thought the guidance provided clarity over what was required.

We appreciate that people used their own experiences to give us their feedback. And we agree that the requirements of the guidance and fundamental standard should help support improved wellbeing and quality of life for people using services, their families and carers.

We have used the feedback received from the consultation survey responses, as well as other discussions we have had with people who use services and other stakeholders to improve our guidance.

For example, we have added further clarity where suggested to help providers understand what they must do to make sure they respect the right of each person to receive visits and to be accompanied.

We have also changed the guidance to clarify where the regulation does not create any new requirement on providers in terms of staffing or resource, beyond what they may already have in place.

We go into more detail about the feedback we received and our response in the following section.